Page 87 of The Alien Warrior's Vow

He turned to watch her as she slipped the tunic over her back. He saw bruises on her hips where he’d gripped her as he’d mated her against the wall. It was only a flash as the fabric slid down to cover the marks, but it was enough to paint his mind in red.

Lans winced.

Again.

He had lost his control again.

She was too small. Too delicate. Even if she accepted, he should have held back rather than give in to the urge to break her. But it was Eema who made him lose control. Eema who had urged him. Who had demanded more.

More.

More.

Harder.

She had scratched at his back.

Cried in passion.

Taken him deeper and deeper.

She had given her all.

In doing so, she had torn through him .

Turned him to dust.

To nothing.

He could not understand his female.

Lans scratched the back of his neck. Had she started a fight just to coax out his impatience? Just to make him rough with her when he invaded her heat?

Neh.

That would be foolish to even consider.

There was more behind this behavior.

Something deeper.

Eema had distracted him when she instigated a mating, but if he ignored the problem now, it would only grow into something serious.

“Eema,” he caught her eye as she turned to face him, “about what we were discussing before—”

There was a knock on the door.

Lans growled. “What?”

“The food is prepared. You must eat.” The Healer’s voice sounded muffled through the wall.

Puzzled, Lans strode to the door and opened it. “Healer?”

“I asked your comrades to fetch you, but they seemed certain that you would be…” His eyebrow nubs arched in Eema’s direction, “otherwise occupied.”

Eema’s face flushed.

The Healer nodded at him. “But you have not had a proper meal since dawn. You must eat something.”

---